BTS have been rumored to make an appearance on end-year Japanese show “Kōhaku Uta Gassen” but the probability of them appearing on the show was slim after the controversies surrounding them made waves in Japan, not to mention the heated political tensions between Korea and Japan at the moment.
It has been revealed that the show went to great lengths to cast BTS, insiders of NHK (broadcasting station of the show) stated. Employees had especially flown from Japan to Europe to try and cast BTS (when they were on their European leg tour) back in October.
Although it has been previously revealed that Jimin’s shirt was not the main reason why BTS won’t appearing on the Japanese show, it was going to be difficult for them to appear on the show regardless of the shirt controversy.
Also adding, the viewer’s base of “Kōhaku Uta Gassen” is mainly composed of seniors and even if BTS didn’t appear it wouldn’t have any effect on their popularity since BTS are popular within the age groups of 10s and 20s, not appearing on the show will hardly affect their popularity.
Since the show ratings have been declining each year, they had initially attempted to recruit big Kpop stars such as TVXQ or BTS on the show.
BTS have been getting love-calls from everywhere around the world regardless of their recent controversies.
According to Japanese journalist Toshi Yoshioka, BTS’s activities in Japan for next year are already in talks, many shows are actively trying to recruit them.
Despite the shirt controversy, BTS shows no signs of slowing down, they have performed in front of 380,000 fans on November 13 and 14 in Tokyo Dome and will continue to tour around Japan in sold out shows.
Source: (A)
